ESU Graduate Student Helps Promote Community Playground

Oliver Trojak could have taken a few shortcuts, or at least chosen a simpler project.

With his already packed schedule consisting of a full-time and a part-time job, few people would have criticized him. That wasn’t in the plans for the East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania graduate student seeking his master’s in professional and new media writing

For a required service-learning project, Trojak, who earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from ESU in 2011, used web writing, creative script writing and video production skills collaboratively with local high school and elementary school students to help promote the efforts by a committee dedicated to refurbishing  and funding the building of a much-needed community playground.

It’s exactly the type of project ESU President Marcia G. Welsh, Ph.D., and faculty and staff members are envisioning with the implementation of the institution’s new strategic plan.

“A major aspect of the strategic plan is about innovative approaches to the usual status quo in academia,” said Bill Broun, ESU associate professor of English. “Oliver’s project is representative of creative learning and demonstrates the values that are embodied in the new strategic plan. We want to make ESU a place where these adaptive, creative learners can be nurtured and challenged.”

The project—albeit a bigger undertaking than Trojak ever imagined—was close to his heart and more rewarding than he thought possible.

Trojak, now 27, grew up in Marshalls Creek, attended Resica Elementary School, and graduated from East Stroudsburg High School South.  He has since designed his first website and wrote the copy and worked with 13 students to produce a video about the now-deteriorated playground behind Resica Elementary.

In order to get the nine elementary school and four high school students involved, he reached out to Brooke Langan, E-team adviser for those students who are tech savvy and involved in community outreach. He had to collect releases from the students and their parents which would allow them to appear in the video. As an added bonus, he learned about the advantages of Google analytics.

He continues to update the calendar on kidscreateplay.com so that every time an event passes, it reflects information about the next event. Although the website has generated only $200, he’s hopeful the number will continue to grow.

“I thought this would be a perfect fit to help market their fundraising,” said Trojak, who earned a 97 on the project. “Before the website it was kind of piecemeal. The committee  had written letters to businesses, set up Facebook and  go fund me pages, but they were all managed by different people. I thought it would help if we had a central point with a call to action. They were really excited, and the fact that I could help the playground in the community I grew up in was great.”

This may have been the first website Trojak designed, but he doesn’t expect it to be the last. As part of following his dream of being a freelance travel writer, he envisions possibly creating and maintaining a website to showcase his writing.

Becoming a freelance writer will be no easy task, but Trojak has one big advantage – he’s already traveled to 15 countries, including China, Russia, Poland, Germany, Norway, England, Ireland, France, Belgium, Spain, Canada and Mexico. He leaves at the end of the summer for an extended trip that will take him to the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Japan and Norway.

“My parents kind of instilled a love of travel in me and took me on a lot of trips when I was young,” he recalled.

 

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